No one likes a messy desktop. But sometimes, you end up with shortcuts all over the desktop, which not only ruins the look of the background wallpaper, but also sort of makes it harder to spot the icons you really need to access.
Plenty of tools exist to make the desktop an organized place, from the commercial Fences to the free Nimi Places.
Biniware Run is a universal bookmark tool for desktop shortcuts, URLs, Files and Folders. The program offers a convenient way to access shortcuts and delivers a clutter-free desktop as a consequence.
Open Biniware Run and you should see a circle at the center top of the screen. You can move it around the screen if you want; personally I like it on the left side of the screen where it wouldn’t interfere with the tab bar, toolbar or scroll bar of other applications. Try clicking on the icon and it shouldn’t work. That’s because it has no shortcuts yet. So, let’s add some.
Adding shortcuts and using them
Drag and drop any shortcut that you want quick access to over the Biniware icon (the b icon). After adding it, click on the B icon and you’ll be able to access the newly added shortcut. This also works with website addresses (URLs), and even with Files or Folders that you have on the computer. Folders open in new a window in Explorer, while desktop shortcuts run the program directly. Files and URLs open in their respective handlers, i.e., your images open in the photo viewer and URLs open in your default browser.
Note: The program downloads the title and favicon (website’s icon) when a URL is added. This can be disabled from the settings.
To create a shortcut folder, you can drag a new shortcut over an existing one in Biniware Run’s context menu. But, doing it this way can get a bit messy. A better way to do this is to use the configuration window.
Global keyboard shortcuts for Biniware Run
- Ctrl + ` opens the context menu (at the mouse cursor position).
- Ctrl + 1 opens the config window.
- Ctrl + 2 toggles always on top.
Configuration Window
To configure the context menu, use a right-click (or use the shortcut listed above). This is where you can set up Biniware Run and organize the shortcuts. The toolbar in the left pane has 4 options at the top which are used to sort the icons by name, import and export the current list of shortcuts, add a new shortcut and remove one.
Shortcuts are customizable. Clicking on an icon on the left displays its name, path, parameters, StartIn location on the right pane. You can optionally set programs to run with elevated rights if required.
Click the + button to add a new shortcut, but if you leave it empty it turns into a folder. To create shortcuts in a folder, just make sure you select the folder and then the + button to add the shortcut as a sub-folder item. You can rename shortcuts, folders, URLs, and files using the name field. For some reason, any shortcut that I added to a folder ended up without an icon. To fix this, I had to add a shortcut to the top-level (outside the folder) and then move it to the folder.
Biniware Run’s icon can be customized, you change the color, size, border and opacity of it from the config window.
Tip: Don’t forget to use the right-click context menu in the Configuration Window, it’s helpful in organizing the shortcuts.
Biniware Run is a free (donationware) program. The application is portable, and doesn’t need administrator rights to function. It requires .NET Framework 4.5 or newer, and works on Windows Vista and above.
Biniware appears to be a new venture of Alexandru Dicu, who created Binisoft and Windows Firewall Control (which was then acquired by Malwarebytes). That might explain why the two websites and the program interfaces look very similar.
I have used Fences in the past (still have a premium version) for organizing my desktop. Biniware Run takes minimalization to a different level though.
Biniware Run
For Windows